Friday Doggie Blogging and Shit on My Doorstep

Ok. Now I didn't realize Saul could smile for the camera but...that picture says it all. What a clown!!

Saul has had a busy week this week. He has learned to escape his fence no matter what I do. Twice now he has come bounding around the corner like a kangaroo and treed multiple cats. He is very proud of himself. He has not caught a cat yet though. I have managed to get to him almost as soon as he breaches the fence. He is very good about coming to me when I call.

There is a new dog lurking about and Saul is NOT happy about it. It is a neighbors hound dog and three times this week when I have taken Saul out he has been outside. He looks friendly and wags his tail but I am afraid Saul is kind of anti-social and wants only to defend his territory. The other day the hound was in the woods behind the house and Saul could see him. He went NUTS! I didn't get onto him because I want him to be defensive of his family and territory....but he got so excited that he tried to go through the glass in the living room window so I had to put him in his kennel. He almost broke it apart. When he is in defender zone he is a sight to behold!

Since the arrival of this new dog Saul refuses to go to the bathroom when I take him out. All he wants to do is sniff all of the other spots where the hound has peed. It takes so long to convince him to go.

Yesterday Saul and I went to Montgomery to visit my grandmother who is very ill and expected to pass any day. When we arrived back home yesterday afternoon the intruder hound dog had left a giant pile of shit on our doorstep.



Can you believe that? He just bowed up and shit right on the steps while we were out. It would be hilarious if it were anyone's steps but mine. Despite it being mine though, I still find I can smile at the pure audacity of this dog. It's admirable, really. Saul came up on that pile, took a giant sniff and let out a very deep rumble as if to say..."You're marked buddy." Seeing a dog growl at a pile of shit left by another dog was surreal.

This is going to be a short post. It has been a hellacious week here at Casa Nall. My grandmother (MeMaw) is very ill. She is 88 and her heart and kidneys have given out and the death clock is ticking. She and I were always very close. I was always her favorite and from the time I was born her nickname for me was "Thang!"

I keep remembering all of the neat stuff she used to do when we were kids. She used to save all of her pocket change in metal Band-Aid boxes and Sucrets boxes and give it to me when I would come over. She always had certs and other candy in church to give the kids when we would get fidgety. Whenever someone would tease me for sucking my thumb (I am a 12 year veteran...retired now for 20....although sometimes when I wake up my thumb is wet??) she would defend me and make them leave me alone. She always kept my favorite blanket that I liked to twiddle between my fingers when sitting in her lap and sucking my thumb. She gave it to me when I got pregnant with my first child and I still have it.

Another thing about MeMaw is her mischevious streak. When we would stump our toes and have those huge hunks of skin hanging off the end and be bleeding like crazy she would ask "Did it hurt?" and through tears so hard they made us snub, snort and gasp for breath we would say "y....ye....uh.uh.uh....yyyyeeessss" and she would grin say "I didn't feel a thang!" Don't ask me why for I never asked and she never elaborated...but that was her in a nutshell.

She always had a forked toungue too. Still has one even in her current condition, as a matter of fact. When I was about 11 my grandfather, who we always called Pee Paw, had one of those giant satellite dishes installed. You know the kind so big they look like maybe you could use them to contact aliens across distant galazxies? Anyway, Me Maw gave me the remote one day and I flipped it to MTV where my current heart throb, Jon Bon Jovi, was wiggling and gyrating around on stage. I commented about how good looking I thought he was and Me Maw said, "Where at...under his clothes?"
Yesterday I was watching TV with her and some handsome actor came on the screen. I said, "Now there's a nice looking man...ain't he Me Maw?" and even with a leaky heart, failing kidneys and around her oxygen tube she popped right out with, "Where at...under his clothes?"

God, how I am going to miss her.

Good stuff happened this week too. More people have signed up to help pass the Compassionate Care Act. Two of the new patients and some members of their families will be attending tonight's meeting. I hope to see you there as well.

That's all for now!